For the second straight year Jim Riggleman took over a horrible team at midseason as interim manager. For the second straight year he helped the team become slightly less horrible. And for the second straight year he probably won’t be asked back.
Here’s what Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo–himself an “interim” GM until just recently–said about Riggleman’s chances of managing the team in 2010:

I think Riggleman really did a good job handling the ball club after the All-Star break. I think he put us on pace to really focus and bare down on the fundamentals of the game, to play cleaner and more efficient ballgames. He had the players playing at a high level. I think he has done the best job he could with the ability level that he has.

This is the evaluating time of the year. We are all being evaluated, Jim included. Jim has done a great job. It’s going to be an intense offseason and a busy one. The ultimate goal is to make us a better ball club.

Riggleman has gone 29-42 since taking over the Nationals from Manny Acta and was 36-54 after taking over the Mariners from John McLaren last season. Obviously his combined 65-96 (.403) record in those two stints is hardly impressive, but consider that Washington and Seattle were a combined 51-108 (.320) before he came along. Over the course of a full season, that amounts to a 13-game improvement.
On the other hand Riggleman has now managed 1,245 major-league games for four different teams and has a lifetime 551-694 (.443) record, so while he may be good at turning historic awfulness into run-of-the-mill awfulness he hasn’t done much more than that with past chances. Riggleman is certainly a legitimate candidate for the full-time job, but my guess is that he’ll be part of the interview process before eventually giving way to a bigger, more fan-pleasing name.

Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna was arrested in Toronto back on May 8 on charges of assault against a woman and he has been on MLB’s administrative leave list ever since — that leave having been extended twice already.

Canadian authorities aren’t revealing any details about the case so as to protect the identity of the accuser and it’s unclear where MLB’s investigation into the matter stands at this point, but Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports opens his latest column with this note …

Toronto Blue Jays star closer Roberto Osuna’s domestic issue is said by people familiar with the case to be serious and involve allegations of a physical nature, which would draw a significant ban.

Heyman notes that Major League Baseball handed 15-game suspensions to Jeurys Familia and Steven Wright for domestic assault cases where there was no physical abuse — or none proven — and that Aroldis Chapman got 30 games after a police report revealed that he did get physical with the victim and also fired a gun.

It sounds like Osuna could be facing a suspension of at least 20-25 games, given the precedent. Again, though, we don’t have any actual details.

Tyler Clippard has been operating as Toronto’s primary ninth-inning man in Osuna’s absence.